321 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION* 



no longer refemble the languages which were 

 Ipoke by thofe people. 



2. Oriental languages^ the ftudy of which is 

 necefTary in order to the underftanding of the 

 text of the holy fcriptures, efpecially the Old 

 Teftament. 



3. Learned languages , which are thofe that arc' 

 indifpenfably. necefiary in the fludy of erudition, 

 and particularly literature-, which, while there 

 were people, in the world who made them their 

 common language, were called living , but as no 

 nation now makes ufe of them, they are called 

 dead languages, and are therefore to be learned 

 from books or in fchools. 



4. Modern languages, in which are diftinguifh- 

 ed, firft, the common languages of the European 

 nations, and fecondly, the languages of th 

 people who< inhabit- the three other parts of the 

 world. 



V. With regard to the languages that were 

 fpoken by the firft inhabitants of the world, till 

 the deftrud-ion of the tower of Babel, there are 

 not now the lead traces of them remaining ; 

 though fome zealous theologians 'pretend that it 

 was the Hebrew, as it is found in the Bible, or 

 at lead the ancient Chaldean , but all this is mere 

 conjedure , and it is certain, on the contrary,, 

 that every veftige of thole languages has been 

 totally deftroyed by time. The ancient langua- 

 ges that that have been in ufe in the different 

 parts cf the world fince that period, and the 



know- 



